Privacy Policy

Effective date: October 19, 2026 · Last updated: October 19, 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how Appetite Pal (“we,” “us,” or “our”) collects, uses, discloses, retains and protects information about you when you use the Appetite Pal mobile application, our website at https://appetitepal.com, and related services (together, the “Service”). It also explains the choices and rights you have. By using the Service you acknowledge this Policy. If you do not agree with it, please do not use the Service.

Contents

1. Who we are
2. Information we collect
3. How we use information
4. Legal bases (EEA/UK)
5. AI processing and Anthropic
6. How we share information
7. Consumer health data
8. How long we keep information
9. Security
10. Your choices and controls
11. Your privacy rights
12. California residents
13. Other U.S. states
14. EEA, UK and Switzerland
15. International transfers
16. Children
17. Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control
18. Third-party services
19. Changes to this Policy
20. Contact us

1. Who we are

The Service is provided by the operator of Appetite Pal. We are the “controller” (or “business”) responsible for the personal information described in this Policy, except where we state that another company acts independently. You can reach us at support@appetitepal.com.

2. Information we collect

2.1 Information you provide

• Account information. When you create an account we receive the identifier for the sign-in method you choose: your email address (and a password, which is handled by our authentication provider and never visible to us in plain text), your phone number, or the information Apple or Google share with us when you use Sign in with Apple or Google Sign-In (such as your name and email address, which may be an Apple “Hide My Email” relay address). We also receive a unique user ID for your account.
• Profile and body information. Your sex, age, height, current weight, goal weight, preferred pace of weight change, activity level, weight goal, preferred units, whether you take or plan to start a GLP-1 medication, and the daily calorie and nutrient targets calculated from them or entered by you.
• Food and nutrition information. Meal photos you take or select, food descriptions you type, the meal type and time, servings, and the resulting nutrition analysis (calories, macronutrients, micronutrients, scores and related estimates). This information is stored on your device (see section 2.4).
• AI permission choice. Whether you allowed AI analysis, the version of the disclosure you saw, and when you made the choice.
• Communications. If you contact us, your email address, the contents of your message and any information you choose to include.

2.2 Information collected automatically

• Subscription and purchase information. Payments are processed by Apple. We never receive your payment card details. To confirm your subscription, the app sends us the signed transaction record that Apple provides, which includes the product purchased, transaction identifiers, purchase and expiration dates, the purchase environment (for example, test or production) and an account token that links the purchase to your account.
• Usage counts. The number of AI analyses and AI reviews you request each day, which we use to operate fair-use limits. The app sends your device’s time zone setting (for example, “America/Los_Angeles”) with each AI request so limits reset at your local midnight; we do not store it.
• Technical and log information. When the app communicates with our servers, our hosting and authentication providers (Google Firebase / Google Cloud) automatically process information such as your IP address, device and operating system type, app version, request timestamps, and error and diagnostic information. Our server logs record your user ID, which feature was used, the AI model used, the amount of AI processing consumed and whether the request succeeded. Our server logs do not record the contents of your photos, descriptions or AI results.

We do not use third-party advertising, analytics or tracking SDKs, we do not track you across other companies’ apps or websites, and we do not collect your precise location, contacts, or advertising identifier.

2.3 Device permissions

The app asks for access to your camera (to photograph meals) and uses the system photo picker to let you choose photos. We access only the photos you take or select, and only when you choose to. You can change these permissions in your device settings at any time.

If you turn on reminders, the app asks for permission to send notifications. Reminders are scheduled on your device by the app itself, using your food log and goals (for example, “You have 620 kcal left today”). They are not sent through our servers, and no notification token or reminder content is sent to us. Because reminder text can include calorie and nutrition information, it may appear on your lock screen; you can hide previews or turn reminders off in the app’s Settings or your device settings.

2.4 Where your information is stored

3. How we use information

We use personal information to:

• create and secure your account and let you sign in on your devices;
• calculate your energy needs and nutrition targets and show your progress;
• analyze the meals you submit and generate AI nutrition estimates and coaching, only after you give permission;
• verify your subscription, provide paid features and enforce fair-use limits;
• restore your profile when you sign in on a new device;
• respond to your questions, requests and support needs;
• maintain, debug, secure and improve the Service, and prevent fraud, abuse and misuse;
• comply with law, enforce our Terms of Use, and protect the rights, safety and property of you, us and others.

We do not use your information for targeted advertising, we do not sell it, and we do not use your meal photos or health information to train AI models. We do not make decisions based solely on automated processing that produce legal or similarly significant effects about you. AI outputs are estimates you can review, adjust or ignore.

4. Legal bases for processing (EEA, UK and Switzerland)

If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, we rely on the following legal bases:

• Performance of a contract: to provide your account, the app’s features and your subscription.
• Explicit consent: to process health-related information (such as weight, body measurements and food intake) and to send your meal data to Anthropic for AI analysis. You can withdraw consent at any time in Settings without affecting processing that took place before withdrawal.
• Legitimate interests: to secure the Service, prevent abuse, debug problems and improve the Service, where those interests are not overridden by your rights.
• Legal obligation: to comply with applicable laws, such as tax, accounting and law-enforcement requests.

5. AI processing and Anthropic

The app’s nutrition analysis and coaching features are powered by Claude, an AI model provided by Anthropic, PBC (“Anthropic”), a company based in the United States.

• Permission first. Before any of your information is sent to Anthropic, the app shows a screen explaining what is shared and why, and asks for your permission. Nothing is sent unless you tap “Allow.” You can withdraw permission at any time in Settings → AI analysis; after that, no further data is sent and AI features stop working until you allow them again.
• What is sent. For a meal analysis: the photo you take or choose (resized and compressed) and/or the description you type. For an AI day review: that day’s food entries and their nutrition values, your daily targets, and your profile (age, sex, height, weight, activity level, goal and GLP-1 medication status). We do not send your name, email address, phone number or account ID to Anthropic.
• How it is sent. Requests travel over encrypted connections from the app to our servers, which add our credentials and forward the request to Anthropic. Our servers do not store the photo, description or result.
• How Anthropic uses it. Anthropic processes this data to return the result to us under its commercial terms. Those terms do not permit Anthropic to train its AI models on this data. According to Anthropic’s published policies, it retains such inputs and outputs for a limited period (currently up to 30 days) and may retain them longer where required by law or where content is flagged under its usage policies for trust and safety review. See Anthropic’s Privacy Policy and Commercial Terms.
• Accuracy. AI results are estimates based on what is visible or described and may be inaccurate or incomplete. They are not medical or dietary advice. See our Terms of Use.

6. How we share information

We share personal information only as described below. We do not sell personal information and do not “share” it for cross-context behavioral advertising (as those terms are defined under California law), and we have not done so in the past 12 months.

• Service providers (processors) that process information on our behalf and under our instructions:
  • Google LLC (Firebase and Google Cloud): account authentication, phone number verification by SMS, our database, our server functions, logging and website hosting.
  • Anthropic, PBC: AI analysis and coaching, as described in section 5, only with your permission.
• Platform providers acting independently. Apple processes your App Store purchases, subscriptions and Sign in with Apple, and Google processes Google Sign-In, each under its own privacy policy. We receive only the information described in section 2.
• Legal and safety. When we believe in good faith that disclosure is required by law, subpoena or other legal process, or is necessary to protect the rights, property or safety of you, us or others, to investigate fraud or security issues, or to enforce our Terms.
• Business transfers. In connection with a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, bankruptcy or sale of all or part of our business, personal information may be transferred to the successor, which will be bound by commitments at least as protective as this Policy for information it receives. We will notify you of any such change.
• With your direction or consent. When you ask us to share information, for example when you choose to share content outside the app.
• Aggregated or de-identified information that cannot reasonably be used to identify you. We will maintain such information in de-identified form and will not attempt to re-identify it.

7. Consumer health data

This section is our Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy for purposes of the Washington My Health My Data Act, Nevada SB 370, Connecticut law and similar laws. Information such as your weight, body measurements, sex, food intake, nutrition and fitness goals may be “consumer health data.”

• Categories collected: body measurements (height, weight, goal weight), sex, age, activity level, weight and nutrition goals, GLP-1 medication status (whether you take or plan to start one; we do not collect the drug, dose or prescriber), food intake, meal photos, and nutrition estimates derived from them.
• Sources: directly from you, and derived by us (for example, calculated calorie targets and AI nutrition estimates).
• Purposes: to provide the features you request, as described in section 3. We collect and use consumer health data only with your consent or as necessary to provide the features you request.
• Sharing: with the service providers named in section 6 (Google and, with your permission, Anthropic), and as required by law. We do not sell consumer health data.
• Your rights: you may confirm whether we collect your consumer health data, access it, obtain a list of the third parties and affiliates with which it is shared, withdraw consent, and request deletion, as described in sections 10 and 11. We will not discriminate against you for exercising these rights.

8. How long we keep information

• Account, profile, goals, AI permission record, subscription status and usage counts: for as long as your account exists. When you delete your account, we delete this information from our live systems promptly (generally immediately and in any case within 30 days). Residual copies in our providers’ encrypted backups are removed on their standard schedules (for Firebase Authentication, within about 180 days).
• Food log and meal photos: stored on your device until you delete an entry or delete the app. We do not hold copies.
• Server logs: generally retained for about 30 days, then deleted, unless needed longer to investigate security incidents or abuse.
• Support communications: for as long as needed to resolve your request and for a reasonable period afterward, generally no longer than 2 years.
• Information we must keep to comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes or enforce agreements, only for as long as required.

9. Security

We use administrative, technical and physical safeguards designed to protect your information, including encryption in transit (TLS) for all communication between the app and our servers, encryption at rest provided by our cloud providers, access controls that let each user read only their own records, server-only control of subscription data, verification of App Store purchases using Apple’s cryptographic signatures, and least-privilege access to production systems. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. If we learn of a security breach affecting your personal information, we will notify you and regulators as required by law.

10. Your choices and controls

• AI permission: turn AI sharing on or off at any time in Settings → AI analysis.
• Profile and goals: view and edit them in Settings.
• Food entries: delete any entry in the app; deleting the app deletes all on-device data.
• Camera and photos: manage access in your device’s Settings.
• Reminders: turn all reminders or individual reminders on or off, and change their times, in Settings → Reminders.
• Delete your account: Settings → Delete account. This permanently deletes your account, profile, subscription record and usage data from our systems, and erases your food log, meal photos, profile and settings from the device. It does not cancel an App Store subscription; manage or cancel subscriptions in your Apple ID settings. You can also email us to request deletion.
• Sign out: Settings → Sign out.

11. Your privacy rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to: know and access the personal information we hold about you; receive a portable copy; correct inaccurate information; delete your information; withdraw consent; restrict or object to certain processing; opt out of the sale of personal information, targeted advertising and certain profiling (we do not engage in these); limit the use of sensitive personal information; and not be discriminated against for exercising your rights.

To exercise your rights, use the in-app controls above or email support@appetitepal.com with the subject “Privacy Request.” We will verify your request by confirming you control the email address or phone number on your account, and we will respond within the time required by law (for example, 45 days under California law, extendable once by 45 days, or one month under the GDPR, extendable by two months). You may use an authorized agent where the law allows; we may require proof of the agent’s authority and verify your identity directly. We will not charge a fee unless a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive.

12. Additional information for California residents

This section supplements this Policy as required by the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (“CCPA”). In the past 12 months we have collected the following categories of personal information, for the business purposes described in section 3, from the sources described in section 2, and disclosed them to the categories of recipients described in section 6:

We do not sell or share personal information and have no actual knowledge of selling or sharing the personal information of consumers under 16. We use and disclose sensitive personal information only for purposes permitted by the CCPA (such as providing the Service you request), so the right to limit does not apply, but you may still withdraw AI permission at any time. California residents may also request information about disclosures for direct-marketing purposes under California Civil Code § 1798.83; we make no such disclosures.

13. Residents of other U.S. states

Residents of states with comprehensive privacy laws (including Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Virginia) may exercise the rights described in section 11. We process sensitive data, including health data, only with your consent. If we decline to act on your request, you may appeal by replying to our decision or emailing support@appetitepal.com with the subject “Privacy Appeal.” We will respond within the time required by law. If your appeal is denied, you may contact your state Attorney General.

14. EEA, UK and Switzerland

You have the rights described in section 11, including the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority (in the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Office). We would appreciate the chance to address your concerns first, so please contact us.

15. International data transfers

We are based in the United States, and our service providers process information in the United States and other countries. Those countries may have data protection laws different from the laws of your country. When we transfer personal information from the EEA, UK or Switzerland, we rely on appropriate safeguards such as the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses (and the UK Addendum) or our providers’ certification under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and its UK and Swiss extensions.

16. Children

The Service is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 (or under 16 in the EEA and UK). Users under 18 may use the Service only with the involvement and consent of a parent or legal guardian. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

17. Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control

We do not track you across third-party websites or apps, so we do not respond differently to “Do Not Track” signals. Because we do not sell or share personal information for targeted advertising, a Global Privacy Control signal does not change how we process your information, but we treat it as a valid opt-out request where the law requires.

18. Third-party services and links

The Service may link to or integrate with services operated by others, such as Apple, Google and Anthropic. Their handling of your information is governed by their own privacy policies, including Apple’s Privacy Policy, Google’s Privacy Policy, Privacy and Security in Firebase and Anthropic’s Privacy Policy. We are not responsible for the practices of third parties.

19. Changes to this Policy

We may update this Policy from time to time. We will post the updated version here and change the “Last updated” date. If we make material changes, including any change to what is shared with AI providers, we will notify you in the app or by email before the change takes effect and, where required, ask for your consent again.

20. Contact us

Appetite Pal
Email: support@appetitepal.com